André 3000 has announced two intimate shows at London’s Jazz Cafe next month. Check out further details below.
One day before he supports Loyle Carner at All Points East on August 17, André 3000 will be warming up with two shows at the iconic Camden venue. The rapper will appear for one matinee and one evening performance on August 16, and will be playing songs from his new ambient, instrumental flute album ‘New Blue Sun’.
Billed as ‘New Blue Sun Live In Concert’, both gigs will include musicians Carlos Niño, Nate Mercereau, Surya Botofasina and Deantoni Parks.
Tickets are available from 10am this Friday (August 2) via Jazz Cafe’s official website, and you can find them here for the matinee performance, and here for the evening performance.
Earlier this month, André 3000 admitted that, when it comes to his new musical direction, he’s making it up as he goes along. Speaking on LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s The Shop podcast, he said: “I don’t want people to think that I’m trying to be a jazz musician.”
“I kind of look at myself as a sonic displayist. I don’t know what notes I’m playing, to be completely honest. I’m not trying to pretend like I know what I’m doing, in a way. I actually don’t know what I’m doing and that’s part of the art,” he said.
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The OutKast rapper dropped a surprise project in November last year, marking his first solo album in 17 years. But upon its release, fans were surprised to discover that rather than the rap album they had been anticipating, it was an 87-minute ambient flute record.
Explaining the new creative direction of ‘New Blue Sun’, he admitted he felt he’d aged out of the genre that kick-started his career: “Sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way. I’m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does.”
It’s a comment that sparked controversy in the rap world, with LL COOL J, Ja Rule, Killer Mike and Lil Wayne among those who expressed dismay towards his decision. The latter said it was “so depressing” that André 3000 felt “too old” to rap, while Ja Rule said he was “heartbroken” that the album contained “no bars”.
Last week, André 3000 said that he felt a lot of new rappers “sound the same”, as they don’t “have time to cultivate themselves” in the way their predecessors did.
“If we were to come out as OutKast when we thought we were ready, we wouldn’t be around today ’cause we sounded like everybody else. We sounded like who we were listening to,” he theorised to The Shop podcast.
In other news, new music from the rapper-turned-flautist may be on the horizon sooner rather than later, with André 3000 announcing in January that a collaboration with SAULT is on the cards after he spent time in the studio with the mysterious British collective.
The OutKast rapper also recently announced a fresh series of shows in the US later this year, following the success of his US tour earlier in the Spring. Beginning in September, the tour will kick off in New Orleans’ Orpheum Theatre, visiting a host of new cities including Houston, Seattle, Vancouver and Salt Lake City. Tickets are on sale now, and you can get yours here.
André 3000’s ‘New Blue Sun’ tour dates are:
SEPTEMBER
19 — New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater
21 — Dallas, TX @ AT&T PAC – Winspear Opera House
22 — Austin, TX @ ACL Live at The Moody Theater
25 — Houston, TX @ The Hobby Center For The Performing Arts
27 — Albuquerque, NM @ Kiva Auditorium
28 — Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Arts Center
OCTOBER
01 — San Diego, CA @ Humphreys By The Bay
02 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
04 — Santa Barbara, CA @ Arlington Theatre
05 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
09 — Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theater
11 — Vancouver, BC @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
14 — Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
16 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Eccles Theater
17 — Denver, CO @ Ellie Caulkins Opera House
19 — Minneapolis, MN @ Northrop
21 — Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
22 — Detroit, MI @ Masonic Cathedral Theatre
25 — Brooklyn, NY @ BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 — Boston, MA @ Boch Center Wang Theatre
NOVEMBER
01 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
02 — Akron, OH @ Akron Civic Theatre
08 — Richmond, VA @ Altria Theater
09 — Washington, DC @ The Kennedy Center
12 — Durham, NC @ DPAC
14 — Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre
Fans in Europe can catch André 3000 at Øyafestival on August 8 and We Out Here 2024 on August 18 alongside Sampha, Corinne Bailey Rae and more.
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